6 septembre 2015
Hubert wins, the race for the title is relaunched
France’s Anthoine Hubert (Tech 1 Racing) scored his first win in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 this Sunday at Silverstone. The Pole winner and member of the France FFSA Team also offered Tech 1 Racing its maiden victory of the season. Kevin Jörg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Ukyo Sasahara (ART Junior Team completed the podium. Louis Delétraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing) finished sixth and now has just a one point lead from Kevin Jörg in the general classification. Five drivers are now separated by just 28 points with three meetings left in the season.
Anthoine Hubert claimed his pole position in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. With the fastest lap time of 1:56.361, the Frenchman lined up on the grid ahead of Kevin Jörg, Ben Barnicoat (Fortec Motorsports), Jack Aitken (Koiranen GP) and Ukyo Sasahara.
Hubert controls his pursuers
At the start, Anthoine Hubert held on to the lead ahead of Kevin Jörg and Ben Barnicoat, who were in a mano-a-mano battle. The Swiss driver was able to pull away, while the Englishman was followed closely by a group led by Ukyo Sasahara, Jake Hughes (Koiranen GP) and Jack Aitken. Two laps later Jack Aitken got the advantage in a pack animated by three wide battles, while Ignazio D’Agosto (Manor MP Motorsport) and Harrison Scott (AVF) both lost several positions.
Sasahara makes it on to the podium
The gap between Anthoine Hubert and Kevin Jörg remained stable at around one second, then the Frenchman picked up the pace at the mid-way point of the race to pull away from his Swiss rival, who had to remain vigil due to the intense battle behind him between Ben Barnicoat and Ukyo Sasahara, who in turn where being chased by the Koiranen GP entries of Jack Aitken and Jake Hughes.
Anthoine Hubert went on for an uncontested win ahead of Kevin Jörg. On the last lap, Ukyo Sasahara found his way past Ben Barnicoat, who spun out and finished 13th. Fourth place went to Jack Aitken, who came home ahead of Jake Hughes and Louis Delétraz, who paid the heavy price of losing the championship lead in the Ben Barnicoat misadventure. Callan O’Keeffe (Fortec Motorsports) was seventh, ahead of Dennis Olsen (Manor MP Motorsport), wild-card entry and highest placed rookie Will Palmer (ART Junior Team), while Thiago Vivacqua (JD Motorsport) was penalized for abusing the track limits, which resulted in Simon Gachet (Tech 1 Racing) scoring the final point on offer.
Quotes
Anthoine Hubert : “It wasn’t easy with Kevin behind me, but this win gets us back in the chase for the title. Saturday was really hard with a mistake in qualifying and only two points in two races. To get my first pole and my maiden victory today is perfect to bounce back. I got a good start and I attacked in order to build a lead and control my race. The end of the season should be really interesting !”
Kevin Jörg : “I put in a good start, but I remained behind Anthoine, who was very quick. I couldn’t catch up to him and I also had to watch my mirrors to see where Barnicoat was and maintain the gap. When I arrived here this weekend, I wanted to reduce the gap to Louis, but I didn’t think I could do it so quickly ; I am very happy with how this weekend has gone.”
Ukyo Sasahara : “I really enjoyed racing with Ben. Yesterday, we were a little disappointed in qualifying, but we were stronger in the race. We used this today to come back on the podium. We needed this. It’s been a long time since Spa and we will try to focus on that to move up.”
Provisional general classification * : 1. L. Delétraz – 124 points, 2. K. Jörg – 123, 3. J. Hughes – 116, 4. J. Aitken – 103, 5. A. Hubert – 99… *Subject to confirmation of the results following the technical and sporting verifications
